Tag Archives: gardening

The Whirling Dervish was a willow sculpture by artist Trevor Leat that was installed in 2012 at Shambellie House, in New Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Leat is known for his work with willow trees which he grows organically for use in furniture, baskets, and sculptures. Unfortunately, Shambellie House, which housed the National Museum of Costume, closed in 2013, so this piece may no longer be viewable. (via Colossal Submissions)

Zen rock gardens are typically composed of carefully placed rocks, surrounded by sand that is raked to represent water ripples. They’re supposed to inspire a meditative state of calm and relaxation. They’re not supposed to inspire hunger and a sudden urge to put it in your mouth. Except this one does because it’s made of entirely edible ingredients. “In cities today, people do not have the luxury of gazing at gardens,” says Japanese designer Tomonori Saito, lamenting the loss of one his nation’s most relaxing pastimes. So he decided to create “Shin-an-ji Rock Garden” made from black sesame (the rocks) and sugar (the sand). Now you can have your garden and eat it too. (syndicated from Spoon & Tamago)

Plant care comes in many forms. For some of us it’s enough to keep a few potted plants hanging on for dear life on a windowsill, while others indulge in the joy of pushing lawnmower around every few weeks, or maybe even keeping a garden. But John Brooker of Norfolk had a horticultural vision unlike the rest of us. For the past 13 years he’s hacked and trimmed and molded the 150ft-long (45.7m) hedge outside his Frizzleton Farm property into a massive dragon complete with flowing tail and wings. Photographer Damien McFadden (also on Facebook) recently stopped by to snap these fantastic photos of Brooker at work. All images courtesy the photographer. (via Neatorama, BBC)

Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal is an international mosaiculture competition held in Montréal, Canada. According to their website, mosaiculture “is a refined horticultural art that involves creating and mounting living artworks made primarily from plants with colourful foliage (generally annuals, and occasionally perennials).” The 2013 competition and exhibition opened June 22 and runs through September 29 at the Montréal Botanical Garden and features some 22,000 plant species and cultivars distributed throughout 10 exhibition greenhouses and 30 themed gardens.

You can see hundreds more photos over on Flickr, however all photos here are copyright Guy Boily courtesy MIM. If you liked this, also check out the Bloemencorso parade in Zundert, Netherlands.

As part of an innovative partnership called Home Sweet Home (Lar Doce Lar) between multidisciplinary design firm Rosenbaum and TV producer Luciano Huck, the teams went through dozens of Brazilian homes doing dramatic makeovers of interior and exterior spaces. On their 48th home Rosenbaum designed a pretty amazing vertical garden that was suspended in a narrow walkway just outside the house. Reponse to the garden was so huge the firm quickly released design schematics (in Portugese) detailing how to build one. A huge thanks to the team at Rosenbaum for sharing these photos with Colossal!

Greenhouse by Czech designer Kristýna Pojerová is a suspended glass domed lamp with an inner gutter for growing herbs and other small plants in urban environments. A cylindrical opening in the base permits quick access by hand to the lamp’s interior, and allows additional light to exit below. The lamp is for sale at Art Light and retails for approximately $1,900. (via designboom)